Persistent Memory

Persistent Memory

Persistent Memory drew to a close on 04/01/2015. The characters were teetering on the edge of sanity by the end of the game, but they defeated their future selves and perished(?) in the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico… only to meet, or have alternate versions of themselves meet, at an auction in 1924 Portland, bringing us back to the start. This time, however, there was the promise of events unfolding much less traumatically.

I had a fantastic time, although I am glad I’ve learned many lessons about planning and managing a campaign. After five years you’d hope I would’ve figured out a thing or two.

Persistent Memory is a campaign of dread and uncertainty set in H.P. Lovecraft’s version of 1924. Shocking no one, it’s a Call of Cthulhu campaign. Previously we used the EABA Ruleset by BTRC , but we switched due to a desire for more frequent (if less dramatic) advancement.

The characters live and work around Portland, Oregon. Starting as strangers, they keep discovering links to their compatriots in their half-recollected pasts while being haunted by phantoms familiar yet foreign.

We are not currently accepting new players but please feel free to browse the Portal, meager as it is right now.

Persistent Memory

Persistent Memory
Comments

Thanks, Stephen! I confess we’re playing pretty fast-and-loose with the rules, but I do like them a lot. In particular I find that the wound track works great for a low-power game — having, say, a bullet wound be debilitating without being inherently lethal fits well with the setting.

Sanity was, and remains, the trickiest part to manage. I feel it’s a mechanic that’s intrinsic to a Lovecraft setting, but I wasn’t pleased with the Code Black spin on the concept. I’ve tried to adapt the wound track notion to mental ‘damage’ and while I figure my house rules need simplifying they’ve worked pretty well so far.